Fresh Milled Sourdough Artisan Bread

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Sourdough is widely known as the healthier option when it comes to bread, but what about the flour we use to make it? This fresh milled sourdough artisan bread combines the crunchy texture of artisan bread with the delicious taste of nutrient dense freshly milled flour.

At home flour milling has recently begun rising in popularity, and for good reason. Fresh milled flour is highly nutritious and the best quality you can use in your home baked goods.

While using fresh flour may seem overwhelming, I have found that with a few minor tweaks to the technique of making traditional sourdough, baking with freshly milled grains can be fairly simple.

Not only that, but learning how to bake delicious food at home with fresh milled flour is a skill that will save you tons of money and leave you with a better product than you could ever buy in the stores.

Today we are learning how to make a crusty, flavorful fresh milled sourdough artisan bread that will become a staple in your fresh milled kitchen.

Why You Will Love This Fresh Milled Sourdough Bread Recipe

Delicious – Nothing beats the flavor of freshly milled grains alongside the taste a long fermented sourdough bread gives. This crusty bread blends both of those perfectly.

Simple – With only a few simple ingredients you can keep the basics stocked and have what you need to make this fresh milled sourdough artisan bread any time.

Healthy – Sourdough is known as the healthier bread option, but the flour we use isn’t always the best for our health. Milling your own fresh milled flour for this bread recipe gives it high levels of nutrition without sacrificing flavor.

Fresh Milled Flour vs Store Bought

There is quite a big difference between the flour we find on the store shelves and the flour that comes out of a home grain mill. In order to keep flour from spoiling, it goes through processing that makes it more shelf-stable, but strips it of many of the nutrients it originally contained.

When flour is ground in a home mill directly before being used, it retains all of those God-intended nutrients and becomes a superfood for our families. Freshly milled flour is rich in many of the essential vitamins and minerals our bodies need, so when the parts of the flour that contain them are removed much of the nutrition is lost.

In an attempt to retain some of the health benefits, conventional flour mills add synthetic versions of some of the vitamins and minerals back into the flour under the term “enriched”. However, our bodies do not respond to these synthetic versions in the same way they do to the natural version.

Some of these health benefits may include:

• Much of our needed dietary fiber
• Essential A, B and E vitamins
• Necessary minerals like Magnesium, Phosphorus, Cobalt, Zinc and Iron
• Unsaturated fats naturally present in the germ
• Antioxidants and enzymes beneficial to overall health

Where to buy wheat berries

My favorite place to purchase wheat berries is through Azure Standard. Azure is a whole food co-op that makes monthly drops all over the United States. You can search their website to find a local drop near you. I love ordering my wheat berries in bulk from them. It not only saves money by purchasing in bulk, but also ensures you are fully stocked for all of your baking needs.

Azure offers many different varieties of wheat berries including…

• Soft White Wheat
• Hard White Wheat
• Hard Red Wheat
• Kamut
• Einkorn
• Spelt

What is sourdough?

Sourdough is a process of leavening and fermenting grains, making it more easily digestible using a sourdough starter made from wild yeast.

You can make a sourdough starter right in your very own kitchen using only flour and water plus a little time. I love knowing the breads I make with my sourdough starter are gut healthy.. plus you just can’t beat that sourdough taste!

Ingredients

Hard Red Wheat – you can also use hard white wheat for this recipe
Soft White Wheat – while you can make this recipe with all hard wheat, the soft wheat really gives it a better texture and that artisan crunch you know and love
Filtered Water
Active Sourdough Starter
Salt – I love using a high quality salt like Redmond Real Salt

Tools You Will Need

Grain Mill – I have the NutriMill Harvest and absolutely love it!
Mixing Bowls
Food Scale – This recipe is in grams due to the high variability of fresh flour using volume measurements
Proofing Baskets – I use the batard shape, however you can use the boule shape if that’s what you have on hand
Bench Scraper
Lame for scoring
Dutch Oven – I recommend using a dutch oven that is at least 5 pts in size
Bread Sling – While these are optional, they come in super handy. You can also use parchment paper.

How to Make Fresh Milled Sourdough Artisan Loaf

Step 1 – Approximately 8-12 hours before you plan to make your dough, feed 10 grams of sourdough starter with 100 grams of filtered water and 110 grams of all-purpose or freshly milled flour.

Step 2 – Once your starter has peaked, prepare to mix your dough by first grinding your wheat berries. I personally like to weigh out my wheat berries before putting them through the grain mill to save myself a step. For this recipe you will need 250 grams soft white wheat and 750 grams hard red wheat.

Step 3 – To your freshly milled flour add your filtered water (700 grams) and active sourdough starter (150 grams). Mix well until there are no dry lumps of flour remaining. Cover and allow your dough to rest for at least 30 minutes up to 1 hour (my preference).

Step 4 – Once the dough has rested, add your salt (20 grams) and mix well. I like to wet my hands before mixing the salt in to help it incorporate more easily.

Step 5 – After the salt is incorporated, perform your first set of stretch and folds. The dough will not stretch easily and will likely tear, that’s okay. Just stretch it about 4-5 times, turning the bowl as you go. Cover and rest the dough. Repeat the stretch and fold process every 30 minutes 3 more times.

Step 6 – Once the stretch and folds are complete, cover the dough with plastic wrap or a dampened bowl cover/tea towel and allow it to rise until it has about doubled in size. If your dough is rising quickly, cut off the first rise slightly before the dough has doubled.

Step 7 – Transfer your dough onto the countertop and divide in half. Use a bench scraper (or your hands if you don’t have one, though they are very helpful) to form each piece of dough into a tight ball. Allow the formed dough to rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Step 8 – After the rest time is complete, flip the dough balls over and stretch them out into a flattened rectangle. At this point you can shape them however you’d like. In the photos below I am using a cross and stitch method to shape my dough into a batard shape.

Step 9 – Transfer shaped dough seam side up into your proofing baskets. Cover with a plastic cover or wrap inside a grocery bag and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

Step 10 – About an hour before baking, preheat your oven with the dutch oven inside at 500°F for at least 45 minutes. This allows the dutch oven to get nice and hot which is essential for developing crusty bread with a soft crumb.

Step 11 – When your preheat time is complete, remove your proofing basket from the fridge (if you have two dutch ovens you can bake both at the same time). Using either a bread sling or parchment paper, flip your dough out of the basket so that the side that was facing down is now facing up.

Step 12 – Using your bread lame or a razor blade, score your dough. You can choose your decorative scoring pattern, however you will want to form a large, deeper score. This allows the steam to escape and prevents cracking.

Step 13 – Transfer your dough to your hot dutch oven. Quickly cover the dutch oven and place it back inside your oven. Drop the oven temperature to 425°F and set a timer for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes has passed, raise the oven temperature to 450°F, leaving the oven closed.

Step 14 – Once the 15 minutes has passed, open the oven and remove the lids from the dutch oven. I like to place a pan under the dutch oven at this point to prevent the bottom of the loaves from getting overdone. Bake for another 15 minutes at 450°F.

Step 15 – Remove baked bread from oven and place it on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Step 16 – Slice your bread and enjoy warm with butter and jam, for sandwiches or any way you please and enjoy!

Check out these step by step images!

Sample Sourdough Schedules

Sample Schedule #1

Day 1
8 PM – Feed sourdough starter per recipe instructions.

Day 2
8 AM – Mix freshly milled flour, water and active starter.
9 AM – Mix in salt to dough and perform first set of stretch and folds.
9:30 AM – Second set of stretch and folds.
10 AM – Third set of stretch and folds.
10:30 AM – Fourth and final set of stretch and folds. Allow dough to rise and double in size.
4:30 PM – Shape dough per instructions and refrigerate for overnight cold proof.

Day 3
7 AM – Preheat oven with dutch oven(s) inside.
8 AM – Bake loaves per recipe instructions.
9:30 AM – Enjoy your fresh, warm fresh milled sourdough artisan bread!

Sample Schedule #2

Day 1
6 AM – Feed sourdough starter per recipe instructions.
2 PM – Mix freshly milled flour, water and active sourdough starter.
3 PM – Mix in salt to dough and perform first set of stretch and folds.
3:30 PM – Second set of stretch and folds.
4 PM – Third set of stretch and folds.
4:30 PM – Fourth set of stretch and folds. Allow dough to rise and double in size.
10:30 PM – Shape dough per recipe instructions and refrigerate for overnight cold proof.

Day 2
8 AM – Preheat oven with dutch oven(s) inside.
9 AM – Bake loaves per recipe instructions.
10:30 – Enjoy your fresh, warm fresh milled sourdough artisan bread!